Askania Hotel

This was, without question, one of the most absurd and unprofessional check-in experiences I have ever encountered at any hotel. I am a Taiwanese passport holder, and Taiwan is officially listed by the Czech government as a visa-exempt country. We do not have visas because we do not need them. This is basic information that any business receiving international guests should know. Yet the hotel insisted—over and over again—that we must show a visa that does not exist. Because of this completely incorrect demand, we were forced to stand at the reception for nearly thirty minutes, trying to explain a rule that the hotel management should have understood long ago. I even asked them to check the official Czech immigration website, where the information is publicly available. Shockingly, the owner still refused to accept reality and continued to insist on seeing a “visa.” I truly have no idea what the owner was trying to accomplish, but it was unreasonable, uninformed, and extremely unprofessional. To be clear, the receptionist herself was polite and visibly uncomfortable, clearly caught between common sense and the owner’s misguided instructions. But the core problem is the management’s lack of even the most basic knowledge about international travel. A hotel that welcomes foreign travelers should not be operating with such a fundamental misunderstanding of immigration rules. No guest should ever lose time or be pressured over a nonexistent document just because the owner refuses to update their knowledge. This experience was frustrating, avoidable, and deeply disrespectful. I strongly urge the hotel to educate its management before more travelers are subjected to the same senseless treatment.

When checking in, the manager required our Visa. Visas are not required for short stays. Manager insisted we show our visa. We showed information from Czech Government website that visas are not required for short stays. Had to argue for 30 minutes before we got our room key. Feel sorry for the receptionist, she seemed caught in the middle. Room looked clean, pool/ sauna in basement looked comfortable. Pool/sauna is extra, not included. 1 hour reservations. Do your research.

The hotel manager has no knowledge or logic at all to run a hotel. We gave her our passports and she keeps wanting us to provide a visa when a Taiwanese doesn’t need a visa to stay in this country less than 30 days. ( even you don’t know, your customs knew and welcomed us to visit the country)We showed her the google information that she needs to check in her customs website as a “hotel manager”. She still doesn’t allow us to check in until we provide our US Green card because she saw our current address is in the US. (Thank God we have not only Taiwanese passport and US green card) This never happened in our whole life in any other hotels or countries. She wasted us more than half hour at the front table by insisting us to provide something we don’t have or we are not required to have. It’s totally unprofessional. This is the worst hotel that we’ve ever stayed in our whole life. Definitely not recommended to stay if you are expecting a pleasant trip.

I am writing this review to share a frustrating experience regarding the hotel's reservation process. While I understand non-refundable policies, the communication breakdown here was severe.||I booked a non-refundable stay and provided my card details. However, the hotel contacted me insisting that the card could not be used and that I must pay the full amount via direct bank transfer (SWIFT) before arrival.||I had a terrible administrative experience here. The hotel insisted I pay via bank transfer, claiming my card couldn't be used. When the transfer failed, **I messaged them several times** on Email, WhatsApp, and Telegram asking for help, but they ignored me for **7 full days**.||As I was traveling with children and the hotel had told me the payment hadn't gone through (and then went silent), I was forced to book a backup hotel to ensure we had a place to sleep.||The hotel finally replied on the day of arrival. They **automatically charged the very same card they had previously said they couldn't use.** The hotel refused to refund or cancel the booking, stating that the reservation was always active. Their explanation for the week of silence was that they "receive a very high number of messages through various platforms, and sometimes it is not possible to respond to all of them immediately." and I should have called them by phone, despite their email and messaging apps being listed as official contact methods.||Conclusion:|This entire stressful situation was avoidable. Had they simply charged my card initially—or answered any of my messages during the week to say "Don't worry, we will charge the card"—I would have happily stayed. Instead, their misleading instructions and week-long silence forced me to pay for two hotels.

Far from the center but very close to train and tram to get everwhere. No street noise whatsoever (only loud guests might disturb the peace because of thin walls). Normal nice breakfast, everything clean and very friendly staff.

Staff is really friendly, took good care of us during our stay. Breakfast was amazing 10/10 to the chefs. Will definitely recommend!!

The room was comfortable but very basic. we couldn't find a single tv channel in English, apart from the music channel. which isn't the end of the world. The shower gel came in a little sachet which was annoying. We had a kettle and 2 tea bags but no sugar or milk. However, we did ask for some and got a cup of milk to put in the fridge. We also went out and bought shower gel as i didn't want to faff about with little sachets. Its ok that the kitchen staff couldn't speak English because they are native and i am in their country, and i cant speak Czech !|The whole hotel is a bit old and dingey but it is just a base. The breakfast was a bit weird (chicken and rice was one option) but it had toast and eggs, among other stuff. Our 2 rooms were, by no means, sound proof.|The pool is heated, we were told, to 25 degrees (that's freezing!).|When we arrived back on our 2nd night we asked for an extra pillow and rather than pass it to us, we were told it'd be brought to our room. I waited and waited then had to call reception who then brought it up.|There's pavement roadworks right outside so the area looked a bit like a building site. I'm sure its finished now though.|The reception staff are lovely and friendly and helpful. As a base, i have no real complaints although I'm glad the weather was good and we weren't restricted to the hotel room as this would've been very uncomfortable and annoying as there's nothing to do in the room if you take out the tv that don't cater for the English (that's also fine because I'm there to sight see not watch tv). I was expecting a nicer looking hotel but, again, i was only there for a few days although we were under the impression this is a 4 star hotel (im struggling to see how).

Very nice location!!! Exliusive breakfast!!! I recommend Very nice expirence ! Good luck. Thank you very much.